Hydrocarbons are found in underground reservoirs. Generally, hydrocarbons are composed of oil and gas mixed with water. This mixture is called effluent. The production of hydrocarbons is made possible by drilling wells as far as the hydrocarbons reservoirs. A hydrocarbons production installation enables the hydrocarbons to be recovered so that they can be processed for subsequent use.
Heavy oil is very viscous, of the order of several thousand Pascal second. In order to produce it, it is necessary to make it less viscous.
At least two heavy oil production methods are known for this purpose: in particular, hot production and cold production.
Cold production consists of reducing the viscosity of the oil by injecting a diluent into the heavy oil. The injection of diluent thus makes it possible to increase the productivity of the well, by reducing the friction and lightening the weight of the column. The injection of diluent also makes it possible to improve the oil/water separation at the central operations plant. It is necessary to control the injection of diluent in order to avoid an overconsumption of diluent or, conversely, damage to the installation if the viscosity of the oil is not sufficiently reduced after the injection of diluent. The injection of diluent is generally carried out manually. However, manual management does not allow the injection to be optimized.
A real-time optimization system for effluent pumping operations is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,856 A. This system comprises a plurality of sensors allowing the pump operation to be monitored. A computerized system is suitable to interpret the operating conditions of the pump in service, to increase or decrease the production of the pump in order to maintain the optimum dynamic fluid level. A diluent is introduced into the well to control the viscosity of the effluent. The quantity of diluent is controlled via a regulating valve. However, this control is carried out manually, which does not allow the injection of diluent to be optimized.
The aim of the invention is to propose a hydrocarbons production installation and a hydrocarbons production method making it possible to provide a real-time optimization of the quantity of diluent to be injected into the effluent, while ensuring good operation of the pump and good productivity of the well.